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Fire lookout · Lake County, Oregon

Fitzwater Point Lookout Site

Fremont NF site: an L-5 cab built in 1934 at Coleman Point, moved here in 1948 (1949 per one register); gone by 1967, or burned by 1968.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Gone by 1967 per the register and firelookout.com. A 1968 Forest Service letter says it was burned.

Visit & stay

Gone: site only. The lookout no longer stands, so there is nothing to climb or rent.

Access

Access unknown

We do not know the access rules. Check with the land manager before you go.

Road to the top?
Unknown

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Ground-level cabL-5 cabThe design: L-5
Built of
WoodGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
Unknown
Height
Unknown
Elevation
6,407 ft (1,953 m)
Agency
Fremont National Forest
Land
Federal land
Location
Lake County, Oregon
Coordinates
42.02216, −120.58924
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-or-fitzwater-point

View from the cab

What the lookout saw from its cab: every ridge out to about 93 miles, the named peaks in sight, and other fire lookouts within view, worked out from terrain data in your browser.

This lookout is gone. The view is reconstructed from its recorded site and a typical height for a lookout like it.

Downloads about 3.6 MB of terrain data the first time.

Or see what it could see on the map: the ground in its line of sight.

History

Then and now

  1. 1934 EventCCC camp at Dog Lake listed a 1934 project to build a lookout at Fitzwater PointSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  2. 1948 MovedThe L-5 cab built in 1934 at Coleman Point was moved here and rebuilt on a rock foundation. The Fitzwater register gives 1949.Sources: oregonlookouts.weebly.com, firelookout.com, firetower.org
  3. 1956 EventAir marking number for the station: F-21Source: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  4. 1960 StaffedJames Jacobsgaard named as a first-season lookout (Herald and News)Source: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  5. 1967 RemovedGone by 1967 per the register and firelookout.comSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com
  6. 1968 BurnedLetter dated May 13 from the Fremont National Forest to the Regional Office: 'Fitzwater Point has been burned.'Source: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  7. No record between 1968 and 2011
  8. 2011 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterDate registered per FFLOS detail page: May 20, 2011Source: FFLOS register entry
  9. TodayGoneThe lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left.

Old maps of this spot

USGS topographic maps from the years a lookout stood may show it, often as a small symbol labelled “Lookout”. See the old topo maps around it on the Firefinder map, or find every scanned sheet of this spot on USGS TopoView (click the spot there to list them, with dates and downloads).

Story

Researched 9 Oct 2026, fact-checked.

Fitzwater Point is in the Fremont National Forest in Lake County, about 17 miles southwest of Lakeview.1,2 A Civilian Conservation Corps camp at Dog Lake listed a 1934 project to build a lookout here.3 The cab that ended up on the point, though, was built in 1934 at Coleman Point, where a crow's nest platform had come first.4 It was moved to Fitzwater Point in 1948 and rebuilt on a rock foundation.3,4 The register gives 1949 for the move.1

A 1956 record gives the station's air marking as F-21.3 A 1960 newspaper item named James Jacobsgaard, of Holland, Michigan, as a lookout new to the job.3

The register says the cab was gone by 1967, and firelookout.com gives the same year.1,2 A letter from the Fremont National Forest to the regional office, dated May 13 and listed under 1968, said that "Fitzwater Point has been burned."3 The register does not say the cab burned, and its 1967 date falls a year before the letter, so the accounts do not agree on how the cab ended.1

No source describes what remains at the site today, or whether it is open to visitors.1,2,3 The house sat on a rock foundation, but no source says whether any of it is still there.3

  1. Fitzwater Point Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites Register, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/or/fitzwater-point-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Fitzwater Point Fire Lookout Cabin, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/or/fitzwaterpoint.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Fitzwater Point, Forest Lookouts (Oregon), Rex's Fire Lookout Page, https://oregonlookouts.weebly.com/fitzwater-point.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  4. Coleman Point Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites Register, http://www.firetower.org/lookouts/us/or/coleman-point-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Fitzwater Point Lookout 1949 - 1967
Fitzwater Point Lookout 1949 - 1967 (1949)Photo: Howard Verschoor collection, via Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source

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Sources

  1. Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (FFLOS) Gave us: name, location, county, elevation, what it is built of, register numbers, agency, ownership, dates, photos, links Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved (American Resources, Inc.); facts extracted only, no prose copied. · retrieved 4 Oct 2026
  2. Forest Fire Lookout Association (FFLA) - US lookout lists Gave us: type, status, register numbers, links Forest Fire Lookout Association (firelookout.org) · No licence stated; facts extracted only, no prose copied. · retrieved 8 Oct 2026
  3. firelookout.com -- Rex Kamstra's Forest Fire Lookout Page Gave us: links firelookout.com · No licence stated on the site; facts only (coordinates, elevation, built/destroyed years, design, agency). Photos mirrored with the site's stated credit. · retrieved 4 Oct 2026
  4. FOREST LOOKOUTS -- western US (Ron Kemnow's weebly sites) Gave us: links Ron Kemnow's Forest Lookouts sites (westlookouts, californialookouts, idaholookouts, montanalookouts, oregonlookouts and washingtonlookouts .weebly.com) · No licence stated; facts only (county, land manager, status word, coordinates where the page's own map widget gives them, township-range-section, height and design hints, links). The site's own newspaper quotes, citations and narrative are not reproduced. · retrieved 8 Oct 2026
  5. Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, status, agency, dates, links, fact-check Firefinder research (sources cited in the story footnotes) · Our own research notes; each fact cites its source in the lookout's story

More about this lookout elsewhere

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